Increasingly negative international opinions on Karabakh polls 'give ground to concern' - Karen Bekaryan

International organizations' increasingly negative reaction to the recently held presidential and parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) give ground to a real concern, political analyst Karen Bekaryan said Thursday, blaming the Foreign Ministry of Armenia for a failure to take the necessary "preventive action".

"We saw reactions by different countries which had never before had any participation in the process, as Azerbaijan's efforts yielded practically no result in terms of allowing them to make calls for not recognizing the elections," he said during his analytical broadcast Between the Lines (aired by ArmNews TV Channel).

The analyst particularly called attention to the opinion voiced by the multi-member Non-Aligned Movement, which he said had never before reacted to the elections in Artsakh (despite its earlier anti-Armenian resolutions).  

"This, certainly, gives ground to concern. If we lack the ability to demonstrate proper resistance in light of a predictable problem, how are then we expected to resist in the non-predictable domain?" he said, noting that Azerbaijan had repeatedly before launched a propaganda campaign in the run-up to nationwide elections in Artsakh.

Addressing the scheduled presidential run-off in the second Armenian republic, Bekaryan admitted that the authorities in Artsakh are facing a really tough challenge in the face of the coronovirus pandemic.

"They tried to resolve the problems in the first round, arranging the voting in a way that made it practically possible to reduce the risks. But at the threshold of the virus - and on the voting day - there wasn't any infected person in Artsakh, while now they already have recorded case[s]," the analyst said.  

Meantime he noted that the threats to the country, which is in a "neither-peace-nor-war" situation, are far from being limited to the healthcare sector alone (in light to the zero trust to Azerbaijan which disrespects the international calls for refraining form border escalations under conditions of the global pandemic).

"With its experience over the past period, Azerbaijan demonstrated practically that it not only uses rhetoric and threat to use force but also directly resorts to provocation along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Bekaryan added.